Ericka Blount
Danois, an
award-winning
journalist,
writer, editor,
and professor
began her career
as a stringer at
the Philadelphia
Tribune with a
cover story on
the king of
Philadelphia
International
Records, Kenny
Gamble.

Ericka graduated
from Columbia
University’s
Graduate School
of Journalism
and has worked
as a staff
writer, editor,
freelancer, and
stringer for a
number of
publications
including: Spin,
The Washington
Post, The New
York Times, The
Wall Street
Journal, ESPN
The Magazine,
Sports
Illustrated,
Heart and Soul,
Uptown, The City
Sun, City Paper,
Vibe, Wax
Poetics, The
Source, and
online
publications
such as AOL and
Newsone.com. She
teaches at the
Philip Merrill
School of
Journalism at
the University
of Maryland.

She
has
interviewed
cultural figures
such as Cuban
President Fidel
Castro, Andy
Rooney, Ed Koch,
Andre Harrell,
Zane, and
Johnnie Cochran
and film and
television
provocateurs
such as David
Simon, Ed Burns,
and Ernest
Dickerson. She’s
interviewed
reformed
criminals like
“Little Melvin
Williams,”
celebrity
athletes like
Patrick Ewing,
Bernard Hopkins,
Ryan Howard,
Oscar De La
Hoya, Dominique
Wilkins, Sugar
Ray Leonard, and
Caron Butler,
and ordinary
people doing
extraordinary
things, like
Jason Pipoly,
who swam the
English Channel
as a paraplegic
adult, after
failing to cross
it as a swimmer
as an
able-bodied
child.

Her cover story
on Earth, Wind
and Fire was
selected to
appear in the
annual series,
the book, “Best
Music Writing of
2012,” with
guest editor
Questlove.

She has
contributed
essays to books,
such as the “The
Regional Guide
to Hip Hop,”
where she
focused on
regional style,
fashion, and
lyrics of Queens
born hip hop
artists.

Her first book,
“Love, Peace and
Soooooouul!” The
Behind the
Scenes Story of
America’s
Favorite Dance
Show, will be
published in
2013 by Backbeat
Books.

As a journalist,
she’s examined
public and
private school
education, the
crime beat in
Atlantic City
and Brooklyn,
covered rape
trials of
celebrities, the
plight of black
farmers, health
disparities in
the black
community, world
renowned
architects,
women in porn,
boxing matches,
restaurant food
in exotic
locales, and
birthday parties
for DeShawn
Stevenson and
Gilbert Arenas.
She has won
awards from the
Society of
Professional
Journalists, New
Jersey
newspapers, and
Deadline
Scholarship club
from Columbia
University. To
view her CV
click
here.